Structure

Special ReportTranscripts for Section 2 of Episode 34

Time

Summary

01:14

Nearly ten years after his death the name of Caiphus Nyoka is still well known and respected in Duduza. He was a member of COSAS and chairman of the Student Representative Council at his school Mabuya High. // He was seen as a person who stood for the truth. He was detained several times for offences he did not commit but was acquitted on all.

The police decided to get rid of him. Past midnight on the night of 24 August 1987 they arrived at his home. // This is the entrance that the police used when they entered our house and they went straight to Caiphus’ room. This is the room where Caiphus was sleeping that night. The police banged this door, and the door was not this type of a door then it was a steel door, so they banged open that door and in they went. There were two beds here; there was a bed here; and a bed there. Caiphus was sharing this bed with another boy and the two other boys were sharing that bed, so according to the evidence given by the three boys who were in this room when the police entered here they asked in Afrikaans ”wie is Caiphus” [who is Caiphus]? And Caiphus identified himself. He said ”ek is Caiphus” [I am Caiphus]. And then the police said ”julle drie uit” [you three, go out]. My brother was shot 12 times. This is where the three boys were lying. This is the room where I was, and ...more

Caiphus’ parents were never officially informed of his death. They found the body in a mortuary. The state pathologist found nine bullet holes in the body, their own pathologist 12. Later, an inquest was held. The family told the Truth Commission that the findings were very disappointing. // Though the policemen acted wrongfully they acted reasonably under the circumstances prevailing at the time. The policemen who were going to arrest Nyoka had been warned that he had hand grenades and other explosives and he was a very dangerous man and he was likely to resist arrest.

The whole thing to us was a conspiracy. It was something that was planned somewhere that my brother must be executed because hence at the end of the day when they completed that mission of killing him they wrote on the board in the Daveyton police station that ‘Caiphus Nyoka, 999 Lember street executed hands of death,’ which means that the people that came there were on a mission and their code name was ‘hands of death’ and their job was to execute him. // The family wants to know why Caiphus, if he really was a terrorist was not simply apprehended. // We thought after his killing maybe the inquest court was going to establish exactly why they killed him, but we didn’t find out the core why the police acted the way they acted. So the reason we went to the Truth Commission is to find the reason why.